money, money,money.....

It seems to me that there is an abundance of talk everywhere about money these days. You hear it all day long on NPR or the news channels on cable as well as on blogs. Besides election hysteria we have finance hysteria. At first I couldn't figure out why everyone was freaking out - at my house we are average middle class - two jobs, reasonable mortgage, few bills, and a small gas efficient car for me and motorcycle for my husband. I would rather have A/C than run the dryer and save on water and electrical as much as possible. I've prided myself for being price savvy at the supermarket - and try to use coupons and sales to stretch the dollar. I belong to Costco but try to be careful and not buy bulk on items that will not keep. There are only two of us at home now, so bulk has it's drawbacks. I do love their easy to fix meals and salads though. I tend to be a sucker for the chocolate/camel apples to, when the vendor comes on site. 3 apples loaded with a year's worth of fat and calories - too good to believe. It started to hit me though when shopping at Wal-Mart and I noticed my dry cat food was $3.00 per bag higher. Then the moist cat food was $2.00 higher. Hum No tomatoes due to E-coli, lettace $2.00+ per head, bread at $3.00 plus per loaf if you want 3g of fibre, what the hell??? When I bought my 2005 Beetle, it cost me $18.00 to fill it - yesterday it was $48.00. Okay - so maybe that is why my paycheck is taking more to survive and a lot less is being saved than last year. I save for a couple of months, above and beyond my nest egg fund, in order to fly to Seattle every two months - and now it may take three months just to pay the same price I have been paying ($269) to get there. Oooh - this IS getting ugly, and I do not do poor well. I can budget and buy consignment when necessary, but I do not do poor.

I remember reading about this woman who got divorced and was screwed financially when her millionare husband hid his assets and she didn't get a dime. She basically had the clothes in her closet and her car and that was it. Because she had lived the 'life' in the fast lane, and had the cloths and style to carry it off, she lived homeless in her car for over a year and would go to Saks and Neiman Marcus to "shop" and would slip into the ladies room to wash and change clothes.Since she had been a regular customer at both stores, no one thought anything of her being there and never guessed what she was doing. If I get poor, I hope I have the balls to do it as well as this woman. She finally wrote a book about her homeless life and made a small fortune and could finally get in off the street. Kudos to her.

One of my favorite blogs is the Midlife Gals ~ SalGal and KK (http://midlifegals.blogspot.com/). They are a riot and can turn a blah day into a sunny one by being so funny. Their weekend post was about what they would do if they were suddenly rich. I used to dream about winning $85 million in the lottery, but kept forgetting to buy lottery tickets. Dah ~ When I started the frugal green mode I'm in now, I quit dreaming about being rich until I read KK's wishes if she was rich. It got me to thinking once again what I would do with the money.

1. Take a deep breath and tell myself "money will not change me" one hundred times.


2. Call my financial adviser and find out how to spend but still save at the same time. Rich people seem to have this down and we must learn what they know.
   
3. Pay off the kid's mortgage so they can buy the house of their dreams near water with a view. Help them pay enough down to carry a managable mortage amount. Insist on a state of the art crafts room for my daughter that I get to work in too.
   
4. Keep the house in Arizona, but redo the kitchen, bathrooms, redecorate it all and re-do the landscape. Use this house as one of three in various locales. Offer it out to other family members when they visit the SW.
   
5. Find a house on the coast of Oregon near Cannon Beach. A big beachy house with at least 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms with room for everyone, all at the same time, without feeling cramped. Make it a cottage looking house and fill it with antiques and recycled junk that looks great. Live there all summer.


6. Get a spot in on the coast in Costa Rica for Louie to live in when he needs the tropics. Rent it out for income when not is use.


7. Buy a condo in Seattle to use when we miss the kids. Scratch that. If we're buying their house for them they can let us have a guest cottage on the property. Since we're paying....and besides, I am a great babysitter.


8. Buy a condo or small house for Javan and Terina and a car.
9. Start a college fund for all the kids.


10. Set up a scholarship fund at the University of Washington in my father's name.


11. Contribute $1 million to a group that supplies the means for clean water in Africa.


12. Contribute $1 million to a group working on global warming.

See, I'm not greedy. I share. I'll still buy junk and refinish it - it's my style. I will buy clothes and shoes without looking at the price, more. But I really wonder if I could ever spend $500 on a pair of shoes, unless of course, I'm in Florence Italy and they're custom made just for little ol' me!

Living with this joy in my life how can I not feel rich!

Meanwhile, back in reality, I love my life. We have enough to get by and enjoy life. We have to spend wiser and think about it more, but other than the house at the ocean, I can live just fine without any of the dream stuff. I'll always want a place by the sea - and may still get it. But I am happy with all I have now. Life is good and gets better all the time. It really does.

Keep your chin up!

Hannah ~ always, dreaming in colors